[Basel, Adam Petri], (August 1520). 4to. (8), 231, (1) pp. With a large figurated woodcut "C" initial by Hans Holbein. 18th century half vellum with ms. spine title. First edition of Hus's principal work, commonly known in English as "Treatise on the Church", ascribed to Adam Petri's Basel printshop on the basis of typographical features. Written in 1413 at the castle of one of Hus's protectors in Kozí Hrádek, near Sezimovo Ústí, the book evidences the author's strong intellectual and spiritual ties with the English reformer John Wyclif, whose like-titled "De ecclesiae" has been written in 1378 (Hus however, unlike Wyclif, did not reject the notion of transsubstantiation). "This treatise became Huss's 'apologia pro sua vita', the defense of the views which he had drawn from Wyclif and advocated. [. It] has a place of first importance among works on the church [.] It is the best known work on the subject issued from Augustine to the Reformation period [and] has had a permanent influence upon the development of the idea of the church" (Schaff, Introduction to the 1915 edition, p. xi-xxxi). - A little more than a century after Hus was burned at the stake in Constance, Luther was sent a manuscript copy of the work and, upon reading it, enthusiastically embraced Hus's central tenets, famously writing to Georg Spalatin in February 1520 that "without knowing it, we are all Hussites". But half a year later, two printed versions appeared almost simultaneously in 1520 - one under the original title used here, the other entitled "De causa Boemica" (printed by Anshelm in Hagenau; the p
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1520. Lyon, 1520. 1st edition. First Edition of a Classic Study of Church Patronage Curtius, Rochus (Corte, Rocco) [fl. 1470-1515]. Tractatus Perutilis Et Quotidianus De Jure Patronatus... [Lyon]: Vincentius de Portonariis, De Tridino Monte Ferrato, [1520]. 37 ff. Text in parallel columns. Folio (15-3/4" x 11"). Recent three-quarter vellum over marbled boards, endpapers renewed. Negligible light shelfwear and soiling. Title page with large woodcut printer device, printed in red and black, large woodcut initial with (possibly) later coloring at head of text, woodcut decorated initials, text printed on wide-margined paper. Light toning, somewhat heavier in places, underlining and brief annotations in early hand to a few leaves. An appealing copy of a rare, handsomely printed edition. $5,000. * The ius patronatus is the body of laws concerning patronage by members of the church, including the granting of privileges, lands and goods. First published in 1506, the commentary of Rochus Curtius was a standard work on this subject into the seventeenth century. Our edition is remarkable for its magnificent typography and notably wide margins. (title as inverted pyramid in red); remarkably broad-margined, printed on strong paper. The printer Vincent de Portonariis, de Tridino de Monte Ferrato is not stated in the colophon; he is only identified by the printer device on the title page. As a result, this imprint is often mis-attributed. OCLC locates 2 copies of our 1520 imprint, both in Germany. Not in Adams or the Universal Short-Title Catalogue. [Attributes: First Edition]

1520 [18] ff. (last blank). Small 4to. Modern half maroon calf. Wittenberg, (Johann Rhau-Grunenberg), 1520. First edition of what may be considered one of Martin Luther's (1483-1546) most influential and important works. "Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen" (The Freedom of a Christian) is the most widely read treatise with its formula simultaneously of freedom and slavery of Christians. His cry for Reformation is present here in the original Latin version together with Luther's letter to Pope Leo X which contains his personal and respectful support for him. He proposes in this treatise a drastic reform that differs greatly from Rome. Present here we have the very rare third of Luther's only three primary Reformation treatises. The others being "De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae praeludium, 1520" (The Babylonish Captivity of the Church) and "An den Christlichen Adel deutscher Nation, 1520" (To the Christian Nobility of the German Nations). Here Luther asserts Christian life solely to the faith, and rejected the traditional doctrine in the whole sum of Christian life. In clarity, focus and unity of thought drafted by Luther himself the preceding German edition is underlayed. "Seltener Urdruck der lateinischen Ausgabe von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen, die gegen die deutsche Ausgabe in einigen Ausführungen vervollständigt und schärfer praezisiert ist " (Jackson). The book is dated 6th September 1520 as found on the unnumbered leaf 8, and appeared in November 1520. Not less than 36 other editions were published within one and a half decades in German, Italian, Span
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Marcello Silber for Giacomo Mazzocchi, 1520. Scarce Latin pamphlet praising St. Yves of Kermartin (1253-1303), patron saint of Brittany, lawyers, and abandoned children. The volume opens with a preface dedicated to the lawyers of the "Consistorianorum collegio," followed by the Oratio. The text is printed in single columns in italic with one 3-line plain and one five-line decorative initial; the title-page is neatly framed with a four-element decorative woodcut border in two elaborate designs.
Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, and the NUC reveal only two U.S. libraries reporting ownership (UCLA, UC-Berkley Law Library).
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel ("AHA") at rear.

Firenze, Giunta (haredes Philippi Iuntae), 1520. - circa 17 x 10,5 cm. 285 (recte 287) numbered leaves, 5 ff., with woodcut printer s device Later half-vellum "IT\ICCU\BVEE\021546; Adams P 1861. Rare early edition of these three longer traetises by the eminent humanist Pontano (1426-1503). Published as a self-contained part of the Latin works in prose and generally considered as part four of the "Opera omnia soluta oratione composita". The linguistic study "De aspiratione" contains many examples in Greek. " "- Only minor spotting, little light waterstaining in few parts but mostly clean. First endpaper with newer heraldic bookmark.

Paris: Guillaume Anabat for Germain Hardouyn, 1 October 1505 (Almanac for 1505-1520). Octavo. Printed on vellum. Collation: a-n8 o4: 108 ff., unnumbered. Blackletter type. Large Hardouyn device on title-page (Renouard 434; Nettekoven p. 135, no. 223); Hardouyn's Planetary Man cut; three large cuts (St. John with the Poisoned Cup, The Betrayal of Christ, and The Holy Trinity with the Church and its four Cardinal Virtues; Zöhl p. 174); twelve mid-size cuts (The Life of Christ; Nettekoven pp. 122-123, no. 211-222); 26 smaller cuts of saints and biblical subjects; a small cut of the crucifixion on the final leaf; each page printed within an elaborate multi-block border, sometimes incorporating letterpress captions. 194 x 124 mm. Decorated throughout; the larger initials illuminated with floral decoration in gold and colors; rubricated with the small initials and line-fillers supplied in gold on red or blue grounds; the arms on Hardouyn's device painted over with an unidentified coat of arms; the borders on a1r and a2v colored (early, but later than the illumination and rubrication). Early recipe for a rhubarb-based purgative in manuscript on a rear endleaf. binding: Later sixteenth century calf over paste boards elaborately tooled in gilt, triple fillet border, large strapwork and arabesque cornerpieces, large strapwork and arabesque centerpiece with two lion's heads and a blank central oval, in between a semé of fleurons, spine with five raised double bands, the compartments tooled with azured ovals and vines; two pairs of ties (now lacking); three vellum endleaves at front an
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